Robert Aske

Robert Aske (1500-12 July 1537) was an English lawyer who led the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion in Yorkshire in 1536.

Biography
Robert Aske was born in Aughton, Yorkshire, England in 1500, the third cousin of Jane Seymour. He became a lawyer and a fellow at Gray's Inn, and the devout Catholic Aske objected to King Henry VIII's English Reformation and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. When rebellion broke out in Yorkshire, he was returning to Yorkshire from London, and he was regarded as the rebels' chief captain by October 1536. He told Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk that the rebels requested the punishment of the heretical bishops and of the king's evil advisers, the recall of his anti-ecclesiastical legislation, and the holding of a parliament in the north. Aske was granted safe passage to London to discuss this, but when rebellion broke out again, King Henry reneged on his promise and had Aske thrown into the Tower of London. He was hanged in chains in York in 1537.